Getting Bent

lhauser — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:28:30 -0800

How can two people bend rebar against their throats? In addition to a video link, there's A friend has been searching the web for practical explanations about how two people can put the ends of a length of rebar against their throats and bend it (see YouTube video here. Admittedly this looks like pretty flimsy rebar, but there are other videos where the rebar looks thicker. Her pastor apparently has done this and has nothing to say about it that isn't spiritual/mystical. Does anyone have a rational explanation of how this works?

Is a somewhat practical rebar crossbow possible?

cellphone — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 23:10:37 -0800

A crossbow that fires rebar. AND: Superheating the rebar. First:

In Half-Life 2, my favorite weapon happens to be what looks like a homemade crossbow that fires rebars heated by a lantern battery. Obviously this is pretty farfetched, but would a crossbow that fires the smallest rebar (Imperial #3 at .376) be all that farfetched?
Bolts weighing 10.5 grains per inch are mentioned on this page. This comes out to .0015 pounds per inch, with the rebar being .031333... pounds per inch.

The rebars in the game are longer than six inches by far, but for the purposes of this question assume that the crossbow would be firing six inch rebar.

Secondly:

I'm guessing a lantern battery isn't enough power to heat up rebar enough that it glows (as it does in the game). My knowledge of electricity is somewhat limited, so I must ask: How much Wattage/Amperage/Voltage would it take to heat up some rebar to that point? Assume six inches again.

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Getting Bent

Is a somewhat practical rebar crossbow possible?